The DOE http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/electricity/e lectricity.html has several charts here indicating an average $/kwh of $.08 in 2003 and the national average since 1960 has never dipped below that price (in 2000 dollars). It also has a map showing prices in every state. 20 states, 2/5ths of the nation have prices above $.083/kwh. It seems this post and subsequent discussion are somewhat skewed.
With that in mind this unit seems like a deal.
I tend to agree that if you're able to get students interested in the material and learning, then the means (classroom vs. headphones) is of less importance. Regarding government funding requirements that require attendance. What purpose does that serve? The government would get more bang for it's University subsidizing buck if it instead required all funded universities to publish their faculty's lectures as audio podcasts with no access restrictions.
More access to this information would be helpful to everyone involved. And don't give me that crap about people not paying for a university education b/c they can hear the podcast for free. For the vast majority of people it is all about the piece of paper. Though if we could all benefit from the lectures then so much the better.
The Financial Times recently , Nov. 9th, ran a digital business issue. Several articles dealt with security issues. One of them title "Our security is letting us down" mentioned that Many people worry about credit card theft conducted by eavesdropping on internet traffic, but no one at Scotland Yard, the FBI, visa or mastercard is aware of a single case of such theft in the history of the internet
Scotland yard, fbi, visa, mastercard...Shouldn't the myth busters be in there somewhere. And here I thought the Financial Times was a quality publication.
Slashdot Mirror
The DOE http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/electricity/e lectricity.html has several charts here indicating an average $/kwh of $.08 in 2003 and the national average since 1960 has never dipped below that price (in 2000 dollars). It also has a map showing prices in every state. 20 states, 2/5ths of the nation have prices above $.083/kwh. It seems this post and subsequent discussion are somewhat skewed.
With that in mind this unit seems like a deal.
I tend to agree that if you're able to get students interested in the material and learning, then the means (classroom vs. headphones) is of less importance. Regarding government funding requirements that require attendance. What purpose does that serve? The government would get more bang for it's University subsidizing buck if it instead required all funded universities to publish their faculty's lectures as audio podcasts with no access restrictions. More access to this information would be helpful to everyone involved. And don't give me that crap about people not paying for a university education b/c they can hear the podcast for free. For the vast majority of people it is all about the piece of paper. Though if we could all benefit from the lectures then so much the better.
The Financial Times recently , Nov. 9th, ran a digital business issue. Several articles dealt with security issues. One of them title "Our security is letting us down" mentioned that Many people worry about credit card theft conducted by eavesdropping on internet traffic, but no one at Scotland Yard, the FBI, visa or mastercard is aware of a single case of such theft in the history of the internet Scotland yard, fbi, visa, mastercard...Shouldn't the myth busters be in there somewhere. And here I thought the Financial Times was a quality publication.